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August 3, 2008

G112: Red Sox 5, Athletics 2

Jed Lowrie tripled in two runs in the fourth, giving the Red Sox the lead for good, as Boston cruised to a win and a sweep of the A's.

Julio Lugo has had three games this season in which he has driven in more than one run. Lowrie also has three -- this month! (Please note today's date!)

Matsuzaka (6-4-2-2-8, 105) still had pitch count problems. He came into the game with an average of 17.6 pitches per inning, 2nd worst in the AL. And today he threw: 17-26-12 16-21-13.

But he worked out of a man-on-third-no-out jam in the second and at one point had retired 10 in a row, seven of those by strikeout. A one-out walk and a Barton homer gave Oakland a brief lead.

Jason Bay singled twice and scored twice. He also fielded a ball off the left field side wall and gunned down Mark Ellis -- the second batter of the game -- at second. So far, this guy has the Midas Touch.

Braden is a 24-year-old LHP who made his debut last April, totalling 14 starts and six relief appearances last year (72.1 IP, 6.72 ERA). However, he did strikeout 55 batters in those 72.1 innings, thanks to a superior changeup.

He began this season with 11 relief appearances before joining the rotation on July 22. On that day, he faced the Yankees (5-4-1-4-1; an 8-1 win) and on July 28 pitched against the Royals (6.2-6-4-2-7; lost 4-2).

Braden has never faced anyone on the Red Sox roster.

In his last outing, Matsuzaka gave up six runs in five innings against the Angels (though he walked only two batters). This is his third start of the season against the A's, but his first since April 1.

Last night's game was so much fun, as you might imagine. Tek with TWO hits, including a double and a couple of RBIs!! And though it wasn't the most exciting game in terms of tension, it was sure a lot of fun to watch all those hits.

We were sitting in Box 91 in the RF---only problem was that to see the batter, I had to stare around the pesky Pesky Pole, which was annoying, especially with people walking up and down the aisles. Why can't people sit STILL? No one gets up and down that much at a movie or a concert.

Anyway, I thought of you all several times. Almost yelled out "Sweaty Dong: TWICE! And when they put LBJ in, I almost yelled LBJ. It was a good seat to watch his back(side). And I was delighted to see that you all remembered I was there to represent JOS---I kept thinking last night, "I bet they are thinking that I am excited to see Tek get those hits." I was.

One negative note: when Bay hit his HR, the crowd started chanting, "Manny Who?" over and over. That made me sad....

Also:Bartolo Colon will make a rehab start for Pawtucket on Tuesday night.David Aardsma will pitch for Pawtucket today, 15 days after a right groin strain put him on the DL. How long will Aardsma's rehab be? Tito: "We don't know."

on my direct tv, when i turn to YES network, there a box that come up in the upper right hand corner that shows the Sox score, and ONLY the Sox score. i find that a little puzzling, and funny. that there would be this auto-function on my direct-tv. anyone else have this?

Some of those "Manny Who?" chants may have come from fans who quite reasonably took offense at Edes' report yesterday that Boras-Ramirez essntially attempted to extort the team into giving Manny waht he wanted even at the 11th hour. After all, "do this and Manny will behave" is just the flip side of "if you don't do this, Manny will misbehave." I'm sure this report is discounted in Manny-World, but Edes has proven to be a pretty reliable reporter in the past. It looks like about 90% of the Boston fans regard this as the "smoking gun" of the whole episode, with the remaining 10% keeping faith with the "he was run out of town by the media and front office" myth.

I'm in NYC. I have MLB.TV, though. (I listen to the SBN broadcast while watching on the other computer with the sound down. How decadent is that?!)[And, efd, sometimes having WFMU on at the same time, as you know!]

But right now I'm working in the wrong room. I'll be moving into the computer room in a few minutes....

ha ha, bases loaded for MFY. Xavier Gagne up, sac fly to left field jeter tags from third, and abreu tags from second, abreau thrown out at 3rd, before jeter scores the run! no runs scored!just jeter being manny, disrespecting the game by not hustling!